MADISON, Wis.–It can be difficult in a heavily regulated industry to develop new ideas and bring them to market, so a group that has successfully done just that on numerous occasions across numerous products shared its insights on the process.
During a virtual presentation on “Exploring New and Novel Ideas,” George Hofheimer, EVP and chief research and development officer with Filene, offered an overview of how the Filene Incubator process works and what has worked for credit unions in bringing new services to market that work for both the credit union and the market.
Hofheimer outlined Filene’s process in the graphic below.
“It can be difficult in a regulated world to develop new ideas,” said Hofheimer. “We seek out new ideas, sometimes from inside the industry, sometimes from outside. At the end of the day, for the ideas that pass through all the gates of testing, we try to scale them. But we have learned we are not the organization to scale these ideas, and we work with partners to get the idea into the hands of the most consumers in the most credit unions in the most efficient way possible.
Most recently, said Hofheimer, Filene has worked to target its incubation efforts, especially toward serving populations that are underserved. That has included an accessible services incubator that has tested $100 million worth of products that actually got into consumers’ hands.
One of those targeted efforts was the Reaching Minority Households incubator that worked with 40 credit unions on what works and what doesn’t. Approximately $185 million in products and services have been delivered through that program, which is now in the process of being scaled.
Hofheimer said current efforts include the Fintech Catalyst Incubator, supported by CMFG Ventures. The incubator identifies, tests and evaluates promising financial technology concepts and companies for the benefit of credit unions and consumers.
Looking forward, Filene is about to launch a growth incubator that will test new and novel ideas to accelerate CU growth and create a competitive advantage by efficiently scaling new delivery channels and non-traditional business models that explore alternative sources of revenue.
The second incubator is the Financial Well-Being Incubator, which will test new and novel ideas to improve consumer well-being and fuel the credit union difference to mitigate gaps in racial economic outcomes.
“Both of these incubators are extremely relevant to today,” said Hofheimer.